Movie Night
by Lancelotlaureate
Summary: Lights out! Film rolling! It's classic movie night in the TARDIS.


Steven was relaxed for once, tinkering about with the food machine, trying to input some new data to allow for a more advanced and versatile menu. Vicki wasn't certain how fixing a machine was relaxation after their time with the Drahvins and Rills, but he assured her that getting his hands dirty was a good way to calm his nerves. He didn't like being alone. Years spent in isolation on Mechanus had made him crave company wherever he could find it, and he found he liked the sound of others around him even when it was noisy and distracting.

Vicki and the Doctor were in the room next to him and he could hear them in deep conversation about something. He could hear the cross mutterings of the Doctor as the old man protested most of Vicki's excited demands of things she wanted to do.

"My child, it seems a rather odd way to spend a day does it not?" the Doctor's voice rung out loudly.

Steven laughed, wondering what Vicki was up to this time. He peered around the door- with the laser screwdriver he'd been using to fix the machine- balanced in his mouth. When he looked inside he could see the Doctor and Vicki moving cushions, blankets, and pillows across the room and placing them in rows in front of the giant projection screen. In front of the screen Vicki gathered various food and drink packages and had settled Hi-Fi on top of one of the bean bag chairs.

"What's Hi-Fi doing there?" Steven asked as the screwdriver fell from his mouth and he tripped over it as he entered the room.

The Doctor groaned. "Why are you making such a racket, dear boy?"

"I was just enquiring after my panda," Steven began as he approached Vicki and tapped her on the shoulder. "What are you doing Sgt. Pigtails?"

"I'm having a film night if you must know, horror movie marathon. I thought we'd start with _'It came from the Black Pit Lagoon in Outer Space'._ "

Steven laughed. "That isn't what it's called," he said grabbing the cover of the box the film was kept in. He looked at it and smirked. "Oh it is what it's called! Bizarre tastes these ancestors of ours had!"

"They're from the 1950's aren't they Doctor?"

"I didn't realise they had films back then," Steven retorted, admitting he wasn't clued up with film history.

The Doctor was surprised and seemed almost put out that the two youngsters knew little of their own history. "Some of these works of fiction were quite amusing, young man. Susan enjoyed many of them on trips to the cinema when we frequented the Earth in the 1960's. Chesterton was a fan of the lower variety of entertainment; I think they called them B-movies."

"This one is Ian's," Vicki said waving the small disc at him. "Ian left all his films here. One time we visited the 2010's and Ian and Barbara stocked up on a few entertainments from their time."

"Well leave me out of it," Steven said sulkily. "I don't enjoy horror films in this day and age, let alone those ancient ones."

"Suit yourself, me and the Doctor will have a laugh and a scare without you."

The Doctor chuckled wildly and tried to get as comfortable as possible on the cushions that his young companion had laid out for him. The fort Vicki has constructed wasn't quite to the standard he hoped but he supposed it didn't matter as long as she was having fun. Vicki snuggled up beside him and wrapped the old man in a blanket and handed him a food packet.

"Thank you, my child," he said as he reached over to press the play button on the remote control contraption.

As the music blared around them and the credits started rolling, Vicki and the Doctor burst into uncontrollable laughter.

"The credits are wobbly!" Vicki let out in amusement. "And that black and white! Oh my goodness these people were deprived. They must have been really depressed."

"They didn't actually _live_ in black and white," Steven said from the doorway, half tinkering with the machine outside the door, and half watching the film.

"Sssh I know that," Vicki replied. "It's just so cute. This man looks just like Ian, except he's wearing some sort of jacket with a letter on the front. He's walking his girlfriend home. He's going to pin her or something."

Steven laughed loudly. "Pin her? What is he some sort of werewolf?"

"No," the Doctor said. "Surely he's going to stab her with a pin."

"No, you idiots," Vicki said with a mouthful of food. "He's going to give her his pin, some sort of love token. It's a bit lame but perhaps this was during the great depression and they had the civil war to worry about."

The Doctor sighed with exasperation. "Dear, dear, my chid, we really must have a history lesson at some stage. Barbara would be turning in her grave if she were dead."

Steven edged into the room again, staring at the screen like he didn't want to miss anything. "That guy seems to be turning in some kind of grave too, is he a zombie or something?"

Vicki pressed pause and folded her arms. "Look, are you watching this or not?"

Steven hesitated and looked back and forth between the food machine and the screen. "No, no, it's not my thing, you carry on."

He left the room to resume his DIY duties but let out a smile as he heard Vicki giggling again from the room. The Doctor was laughing too, bent over and clutching his stomach.

"I can't take it!" Vicki cried. "My stomach hurts. Look at those bats on wires. I can't even imagine a time when we had to use such primitive technology."

"Oh I think it's marvellous," the Doctor chuckled again. "Absolutely wonderful the way they put them together. A fascinating period of Earth's history, and good for a bit of a tease now and again! Though they worked very hard I assure you. I was with the Lumiere brothers one summer as they made one of their pictures. The film doesn't exist any more."

Vicki gasped. "Why not?"

"Oh it happened unfortunately in those days, things got lost, burnt, silly, yes silly."

"More than silly, it's pretty damn stupid to lose and burn film if you ask me!"

"Well nobody did ask you hmmm?" he replied as he tapped her on the head with the film case.

Vicki laughed loudly again, nearly spitting out her food as she did so. "Look at that guy that looks like Ian, he's eating that girl's face!"

The Doctor covered Vicki's eyes and seemed embarrassed at the rather romantic scene in the picture. "They're just kissing, my child."

She took his hand away so she could see. "My goodness, they even kissed differently in those days. I really don't want to imagine Ian and Barbara getting home and Ian doing that to her."

"Yes, well, let's resume the film shall we?" he said shuffling uncomfortably as he fast forwarded the lingering kiss in the car. Noticing the love scene was getting more passionate, he pressed a button and the scene skipped entirely.

"The morning after?" she said reading a title card. "No wonder you skipped that, in our time we leave some things to the imagination."

The Doctor was about to reply when the sound of crashing made both him and Vicki jump back startled.

"Steven?" they called to the doorway at the same time.

A long white figure entered the room, and Vicki could instantly tell it was Steven with a sheet over his head. He was shaking from side to side, his arms outstretched towards her, and he was groaning and wailing as he approached them.

"Vicki Pallister," he said in his best ghostly impression. "I am going to get you…"

Vicki descended into laughter again as the Doctor tore the sheet off from around Steven's body and he was left standing there looking somewhat amused and embarrassed at the same time.

"Steven my boy, what on earth are you doing? What is the meaning of this charade?"

"I was trying to scare you," he said with a smirk.

Vicki pulled him next to them and motioned for him to sit down. "Well if you like the scares so much, why don't you come and join us?"

He sat down next to her and hesitated for a moment, wondering whether he wanted to spend the evening watching films with an old man and a teenage girl. Vicki looked at him, her eyelashes fluttering, and her usual smile turned into a frown. "Please!"

Steven relented; he was never one to resist the adorable face of Vicki. "Oh alright."

An hour later, the movie was finished and the Doctor was snoring lightly as the credits began to roll.

"Oh, he's fallen asleep," Vicki said like she was talking about a little puppy curled up in its basket. "He must have been very tired."

Steven yawned and stretched out his arms. "Bit tired myself."

"Well better get a break because ' _The Invisible Shrinking Man of Mars'_ is next!"

Steven held up his hands in protest. "You have got to be kidding."

"No. I really have at least four films planned," she said, putting the shiny disc into the slot.

"How can he be both invisible _and_ shrunk?" he asked, his eyes rolling upwards.

"I don't know; ask the filmmakers, they were the ones with the mad ideas."

"Oh yes I'll just pop back several centuries shall I?"

"Not exactly impossible, Steven."

"It is in the Doctor's TARDIS. Anyway, why do you go on watching all these movies, all you do is make fun of them?"

Vicki giggled. "I just enjoy it. The movies are marvellous, so creative, oh I just like to have a laugh about them because they seem so funny from my time. The Doctor loves them too, but he likes to pretend he hates them."

"So you really do think they're good?"

"Not all of them, but oh Ian and Barbara had some great stuff in their day, even if it does look absolutely primitive!"

Steven laughed and put his arm around his young friend. He stole a food packet from her grasp and ate it himself.

"Alright then, go ahead, roll tape. Let's get on to the next film."

The Doctor awoke to the sound of the opening music to the next film and he looked annoyed and confused. "My dear child, what happened to the other film? I missed the ending."

"I thought you said the film was lower class Doctor?" Steven said, nudging Vicki.

The Doctor stammered and fiddled with his waistcoat. "I'm merely appreciating the technical evolution of cinema my dear boy, goodness me I do not enjoy these frivolous pursuits, only as an area of study."

The two young companions could sense from the Doctor's awkward shuffle away from them that he was afraid to admit he was enjoying the film just as much as they were; in fact it seemed all three of them had overcome their snobbery to simply enjoy the selected movies instead of simply scorning them.

"Well that looks nothing at all like Mars!" the Doctor scoffed at the cheaply made set on the film screen. "Nothing at all!"

"And look at those Martians," Steven said with amusement. "They're made of some kind of plastic bubble wrap!"

"Space boots!" Vicki shouted as she grabbed her drink and gulped away. "Any time someone wears platform space boots we take a swig."

The three travellers fell against each other with laughter as they all tried hard to control themselves. Suddenly a character came into the scene of the film, strutting sexily down the corridor of a spacecraft. He was a tall dashing pilot carrying his helmet under his arm, his perfect hair combed to a great height.

" _I'm Space commander Taylor," the film character said. "And I'm going to tell you about the day I was shrunk and invisible."_

Vicki and the Doctor sniggered as Steven pouted beside them, not in the least bit amused that he shared a name with the cheesy pilot of a future that resembled little of what he knew of it.

All of a sudden there was a crackling sound and the picture on the screen distorted and started jumping and hissing. Finally, the whole screen went black and the movie machine ground to a halt, smoke billowing out of the device.

The three of them all let out a big moan.

"I was watching that!" they all said at the same time.


End file.
